Out Of Time
by SpeakOutLoudX
Summary: After what seems to be a routine misson, the Enterprise seems to be under the control of someone or something else. Can the Crew figure it out before time has run out?


"Sulu tell me you have contact with the ship!" Kirk cried as he broke through the vines and into a clearing were Sulu was knelt on the ground, tapping the screen of his scanner.

"Not quite captain, comms still down," Sulu replied as he frantically pressed the buttons on his comm, trying to re-establish any form of communication with the Enterprise. "It would help if we didn't keep moving!"

A few laser shots, came trough the vines from the direction that Kirk had come from.

"That is the reason we are still moving! Come on!" Kirk grabbed Sulu by the shoulder of his yellow shirt and dragged him into the foliage on the other side of the clearing. The lasers continued to fire around the pair as they continued to break through the trees. Sulu carried on pressing the scanner, but he still had nothing.

"Captain, we still have no contact with the ship, and we need to get out of here quick! They cannot know where we come from!"

"Yes thank you Mr Sulu!"

"Captain, we have you in range. Ready to launch as soon as you are on board," Spock's voice sounded through the air, crackling and quiet, but still distinguishable. Kirk paused for a moment and panted, shouting to what seemed to be thin air.

"Mr Spock! I don't think I've ever been so glad to hear your voice!"

"An odd sentiment captain. Did you complete the mission, did you fix the computer?" the crackling voice came again.

"Not got time to talk right now Spock... Sulu look out!" Kirk cried as he set his phaser on target, Sulu ducked and the shot was fired.

"Guess I don't need to tell you we have communication again." Sulu gasped, standing upright again. Kirk gave a half hearted smile before being flown to the floor by a laser blast. It wasn't enough to kill him or knock him out, but it was enough to make him stagger in pain as he clutched to Sulu who was trying to pull him into the cover of trees.

"Beam us up now!" Sulu yelled into his comm. The swirls started around them, a clear indication that they were in the process of being beamed aboard the Enterprise. They only narrowly missed the laser beams as they disappeared up to the ship.

Spock stood in the transporter room with McCoy and a medical team waiting for the Captain and Sulu to return. As soon as the bashed up pair were dragged off the transporter deck they were whisked off to MedBay. Kirk as usual had tried to insist that he was fine, just a bit bruised, but McCoy had anticipated this and had a hypo full of anesthetic ready for him.

As soon as Kirk had come back round and was cleared for duty by McCoy, he made his way to the bridge. The quiet serenity of the turbo lift was the absolute opposite of what the atmosphere on the bridge was like. Buttons were being pressed left right and centre and crewmen were going from one side to the other, their pace hastened. The room itself seemed to buzz with energy as the bridge crew operated their stations. The hectic movement on the bridge meant that nobody noticed the strange girl that stood in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall, tossing an apple between her hands. As the crew began to settle, feeling better now that the captain was on the bridge again. She smiled, took and bite of the apple. Spock saw her, fascinated by what he was seeing, but looked away as he heard the captain call him, but when he looked back the strange figure had gone. Spock raised an eyebrow as he turned to his captain.

"Talk to me Spock," Kirk said as they made the seamless change from Spock sitting in the Captain's chair to Kirk.

"Captain, the ship is in a stable orbit around the planet..."

'Well let's get out of orbit, and get back on course then."

"That is precisely the issue, Captain, can not move out of orbit!"

Kirk looked to Spock with a hint of confusion, he pressed the comm button on his chair and called engineering.

"Scotty, why aren't we moving?"

"Err, a few moments captain..." came the thick Scottish accent and with that the transmission was cut. Kirk cured his hand into a fist and attempted to calm himself down. The lights on the bridge cut short and the whole crew were thrust forward. The ship dipped slightly as it fell out of orbit, then, when she had stabilised, the ship lifted out of orbit and continued on her course. Steadying themselves with whatever they could the crew tried to return to normal duty as light slowly flooded the room again.

"We should be out of orbit now sir," Scotty's voice filled the room. Kirk looked to Spock for confirmation, who replied with a short nod.

"Mr Scott pease report to the bridge," Kirk said through the comm. It only took a few moments for Scotty to appear on the bridge, looking particularly pleased.

"What was that Scotty?" Kirk asked as he faced his chief engineer.

"Reset of systems sir, like an old fashioned computing system," Scotty replied, proud of himself for thinking of the idea.

"Care to explain why you just suddenly turned the whole ship off whilst in deep space?"

"Well we couldn't break free of the orbit sir, and the computers weren't responding. I had read somewhere that people used to restart computers when they weren't responding properly." Kirk gave him a small smile before returning to post. Scotty followed and leant over the arm of the captain's chair.

"Admit it, that was pretty good Jim," Scotty said, a smile growing on his face.

"I'm a bit busy Scotty..." Kirk said in almost a whisper, trying to push Scotty away from him.

"Go on, say it!" Scotty replied nudging Kirk's arm. The two started bickering, so much so that neither of them noticed Spock's persistent attempts to capture his captain's attention.

"CAPTAIN!" Spock shouted so loud that the entire crew stopped to see what the commotion was. Kirk looked around to Spock, the crew saw that the expression on his face was not one to mess with so returned to their duties promptly, but still listened to what was being said.

"What was that Spock?" Kirk said, anger slightly tinting his voice.

"I'm sorry captain but as you didn't acknowledge when I first tried to get your attention I was surprised. Then I saw you and Mr Scott bickering over something that hardly seems relevant..."

"Forget I asked Spock," Kirk said, cutting off his first officer, "What did you want to tell me?"

"Sir?" Asked Spock confused.

"Well I assumed, Mr Spock, that since you wanted my attention, you had something you wished to tell me..." Spock spotted the impossible child again, stumbling towards the turbolift. She gave him a strained smirk before disappearing behind the door.

"Excuse me captain," Spock said as he headed towards the lift, not waiting to be dismissed by Kirk.

"What an odd fellow," Scotty said looking in the direction Spock went.

Upon reaching the turbolift Spock directed it to the deck where MedBay was, expecting to see the child there as it was the only logical option Spock could think of.

"Spock what do I owe the pleasure, your physical isn't for another 3 weeks. And to be honest I need the time refresh myself on Vulcan physiology," McCoy joked as he saw the Vulcan

"Doctor, has a child of around sixteen human years come this way? She has blond curly hair and was about so tall?" Spock asked gesturing to a height just shy of his shoulders. McCoy thought for a moment before giving Spock a weird look.

"Mr Spock there has been no child in here, besides the youngest person on board this ship is Mr Chekov, and even he is 21 now, it was his birthday last week, don't you remember? Anyway, Mr Spock, I thought that no one was allowed on a star ship until they were 18! Of course Chekov was an exception to this rule..."

"Doctor have you seen her or not?" Interrupted Spock, growing tired of McCoy's ramblings. McCoy straightened up at Spock's brashness.

"No, why would she come her anyway?"

"She seemed injured, and the only logical course of action was to come here,"

"You and your bloody logic, Spock. Did it occur to your Vulcan mind that if she isn't suppose to be aboard the ship she won't come here for fear of being found out?" McCoy said as he filled a hypo of anesthetic ready for his patient who was stirring in pain. Spock stood there pondering what McCoy had suggested, before exiting, muttering something about the idea being 'fascinating', McCoy rolled his eyes as he went to see his patients.

When Spock returned to the bridge everything was back to running smoothly so he went straight to his station. He ran a scan of the ship to see if he could locate the child he saw, it came up with nothing. All 430 crew members but no child.

"Fascinating," he said under his breathe as he st back in his chair, searching for the next logical step

Down in engineering, the computer systems were getting back up to full power.

"Captain, the computers are now at full capacity again, ready for warp on your command," Scotty said, he waited for Kirk's reply before going to polish some piece of mechanical engineering, he was very particular about how his machinery looked and behaved. The girl appeared from around the corner, propping herself up on the computer deck, she gave looked around, making sure the coast was clear, before pressing a few of the buttons. The power from the computers surged through her as she regained her strength, she smiled as she faded slightly as she smiled, feeling more powerful, before completely disappearing into the computer systems...


End file.
